I can confirm this aswell. On SMP I cannot repair tools when im on survival, but if i change my gamemode to creative tool will be repaired. Also if i am able to repair on survival, it will take all of my levels for example if i have 35 and cost is 28 i will lose all 35 levels.
Jokke Pappa
I think this may have something to do with anvils breaking. I cannot use old anvils but when i created new one it works again with it.
Going to try to reproduce it this way soon.